SPAIN: Ibiza Airport Rubbish Collectors Strike

A rubbish collection strike at Ibiza airport is becoming a health issue with travellers complaining about the 'intolerable smell', bins overflowing and heaps of plastic bottles, cans and food wrappers all over the floor in the waiting areas.

Workers who have downed tools are protesting over the fact they have not been paid for three months.

After not having earned a salary since January, they say they have been left in an extreme situation, unable to pay rent or mortgages, electricity and water bills, and with no money to buy food or even pay transport costs to get to work.

They have now been on strike whilst passengers do not blame them, their experience of travelling through Ibiza airport is extremely unpleasant.

As yet, the rubbish collection franchise firm has not commented on the situation.

An aircraft heading for Santander (Cantabria) last night had to return to base due to a 'technical fault', according to airport governing body AENA.

The Volotea flight took off from Sevilla's San Pablo terminal at 18.24 yesterday (Tuesday), but was forced to turn round and go back after half an hour in the air.

It was just under halfway to its destination, Seve Ballesteros Airport in the northern coastal region.

The nature of the mechanical issue has not been revealed, but the aircraft is said to have landed 'normally' at 18.55 in Sevilla with no damage or passenger issues.

It was expected travellers would board another aircraft later that evening if the fault was unable to be rectified quickly enough for them to continue their onward travel on the same plane.

Meanwhile hundreds of passengers were left stranded at Madrid's Barajas airport after a system failure suffered by British Airways which has ground planes.

Passengers worldwide were affected, and all flights were cancelled until 18.00 mainland Spain time in every country.

British Airways (BA), which is part of the Anglo-Spanish company IAG – encompassing Irish carrier Aer Lingus and Spanish airlines Iberia and Vueling – said a 'major IT fault' stopped all flights to and from Heathrow and Gatwick airports.

For Spain, this means long-haul flights in particular were affected, since BA is a major carrier from Barcelona and Madrid airports to destinations in, among other countries, India and Australia.

Passengers complained on social networks that they have not been able to make bookings or check in online via the BA mobile phone App, whilst others said the queues in Madrid's Adolfo Suárez-Barajas terminal were stretching back along the corridor.

Here, flights directly to, or via, London scheduled for 10.55 and 12.20 were delayed and did not take off until at least 18.20.

One passenger who was heading to Heathrow from Madrid on flight BA457 – the first of the morning, due to leave at 10.55 – for a connecting flight to the USA said passengers were still stuck on the plane at 13.30 since the company thought it would be able to solve the problem relatively quickly.

The traveller said many passengers, who needed to be in London that day during business hours, decided to abandon their trip and got off the plane.

And passengers on the 12.20 from Madrid to Heathrow were believed to still be on the plane at 15.15 on Saturday, May 27.

Iberia and Vueling flights contined to operate normally, although those arriving in Spain from Heathrow may have been affected by what IAG called 'a system outage'.

SPAIN: Swiftair S.A.Operates Scheduled,Charter,Passenger And Cargo Flights In Europe, North Africa And Middle East.

Swiftair S.A. is an airline headquartered in Madrid, Spain. It operates scheduled and charter, passenger and cargo flights in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. Its main base is Madrid–Barajas Airport

The airline was founded in 1986.It wholly owns subsidiary Mediterranean Air Freight. Currently Swiftair is also a United Nations contractor with one MD-83 based in Khartoum (Sudan) for the United Nations Mission in Sudan.

Swiftair has selected the Boeing 737-300F (converted freighter) from Bedek Aviation (Israel Aerospace Industries) as the basis of its future European freighter fleet. The first aircraft was delivered in May 2007 on lease from AWAS.

The Swiftair fleet consisted of the following aircraft (as of 3 August 2015):

Aircraft Active Orders Passengers Notes
ATR 42-300 1 — 48
ATR 42-300F 4 —
ATR 42-300QC 1 —
ATR 72-200 4 — 68 1 operated by Air Europa
ATR 72-200F 6 —
ATR 72-500 4 — 2 operated by Antrak Air
Boeing 737-300F 5 — 4 aircraft are operated by European Air Transport and one aircraft is operated by TNT Airways
Boeing 737-400 4 —
Embraer EMB 120 Brasilia 10 —
McDonnell Douglas MD-83 2 — 167
Total 41

Incidents
In October 1994 one of its aircraft was written off when the crew forgot to lower the landing gear as the plane arrived in Madrid.
In May 1995, another aircraft was damaged beyond repair during a botched landing at Vitoria airport in Spain.

In July 1998 two crew were killed when a cargo aircraft crashed on route to Barcelona when the pilot lost control of the plane.

In January 2012 a plane sustained substantial damage during a botched landing at Kandahar.

On July 24, 2014 a MD83 operated by the company performed scheduled flight AH5017 from Ouagadougou to Algiers for Algerian airline Air Algérie. The aircraft disappeared off radar 50 minutes after takeoff.